About these proceedings

Introduction

Not very long ago, the uninhibited use of mathematics in the
development of software was regarded as something for
academics alone. Today, there is moreand more interest
from industry in formal methods based on mathematics. This
interest has come from the success of a number of
experiments on real industrial applications. Thus, there is
not only a belief, but also evidence, that the study of
computer programs as mathematical objects leads to more
efficient methods for constructing them.
The papers in this volume were presented at the Second
International Conference on the Mathematics of Program
Construction, held at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, June
29 - July 3, 1992. The conference was organized by the
Oxford University Programming Research Group, and continued
the theme set by the first - the use of crisp, clear
mathematics in the discovery and design of algorithms. The
second conference gives evidence of the ever-widening impact
of precise mathematical methods in program development.
There are papers applying mathematics not only to sequential
programs but also to parallel and on-current applications,
real-time and reactive systems, and to designs realised
directly in hardware. The volume includes 5 invited papers
and 19 contributed papers.